


Heirloom

by Kairi_Yajuu



Category: Trigun
Genre: Angst, Bittersweet, Gen, Next-Gen, post-manga, vash and meryl, we can't have a trigun fic without angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:34:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24102955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kairi_Yajuu/pseuds/Kairi_Yajuu
Summary: Two years, five months and seven days. That's how long Alex Stryfe, son of Meryl Stryfe, searched for his father. Once he found him, the man he idolized more than anyone on the Earth without having ever met him, he had to fight a strong case of denial.While traveling together (much to Vash's indignation) Alex has his sheltered life stolen from him and has to deal with why one should never meet their idols.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Heirloom

**Author's Note:**

> I SWEAR I'LL FINISH A FANFICTION WHILE I'M IN A FANDOM ONE DAY!  
> Anyways, this one's planned to be shorter than my previous attempts at multi-chapter fics BUT I am making this up as I go. I know what character development beats I want to hit and part of how to get to them but all the stuff in between each one is free real-estate. Special thanks to special friends who let me talk their ear off about this idea and character and who talked to me about possible ideas and traits and backstory. Special SPECIAL thanks to those same friends for being genuinely interested in little Alex and his story. That was a great encouragement.

Alex knew the rumors. Knew the tales. ‘Life is hard and life is cruel’ is what everyone taught him. His Aunt Millie and mother always tried to teach him that with the hope that he would have the strength to make it better but it never stuck. And they eventually recognized that. So instead they told him the stories of his father.

The man he never knew.

Like so many popular fictional characters, Alex grew up without a father but unlike them he didn’t resent him for it. His dad was No Man’s Land’s savior who left Alex’s mother to protect them. That’s the idea they always gave Alex. So of course he saw him as a hero.

The man he never knew.

Alex was happy with his mother and was proud to bear the name ‘Stryfe’ but part of him always longed to have that void filled. Others tried to argue that the family friend, Zachary, had acted as his father figure. Alex disagreed. He was a mentor, sure, and a great teacher at that. But ‘father’ was far from how he would describe him.

Hearing how important the ideal of pacifism was to his father made Alex determined from a young age to keep that dream alive. So while he learned to shoot as per his mother's demands, he swore he’d never use that power to hurt a single soul. Despite his mother's best efforts in explaining that sometimes violence was necessary to stop needless deaths, something even his father understood, Alex stood strong in this ideal.

No matter what may come to pass, no matter what would happen to him, Alex would never cause another person pain of any kind.

All to be like the man he never knew.

~!~

Vash knew the truth, knew the facts. ‘Life is hard and life is cruel’ is what he himself had lived through.

The daily grind of surviving, of still not aging, of still not dying despite the change in his hair that was so eloquently explained to him as being a death sentence for his kind, was merciless.

He thought about forcing it all to come to an end but figured that wasn’t what Rem would want. Wasn’t what anyone would want.

So he forced himself to put on a brave face, to smile and move on with life.

He had shared a moment of passion with someone very dear to him but it was precisely because they were dear to him that he left. She wouldn’t want him around, anyways. No one would. Danger followed him too much for anyone to live a safe life.

He would stay in a new town for no more than a month. Even then, for the most part, that month would be cut short as he would be, as per usual, chased off by bounty hunters and government officials that searched for him day in and day out.

He would find a new town and the cycle would reset.

He would be forced to move faster, though, when he came across a boy he never met before.

~!~

Alex grinned wide with stars in his eyes. He was an adult now. Twenty-two years old and ready to travel. No career nor trade to his name, just some money he and his mom had raised over the years to help him sustain himself enough to live off of odd jobs from town to town. All in the name of searching.

And after two years of chasing whispers, after eavesdropping on rumors, he finally found what he was searching for.

The man he never met.

When Vash just stared at him with confusion, Alex let out an overly-dramatic sigh and shrugged. “That’s typical of what mom taught me. You can’t tell who I am just by looking at me. Looks like I need to explain myself to you.”

Vash simply tilted his head to the side in confusion. Alex smiled.

“Alex Stryfe. Twenty-Two years ago I was born in a small town just off the edges of where the lost city, July, used to be. My mother was a lover of the great Vash the Stampede.” The stars in his eyes returned. “I’m his son. I’m YOUR son.”

He expected a hug, a tearful apology and a promise to make up for lost time. Not for Vash to turn around and start walking away in silence.

Of course Alex followed.

And Vash started walking faster.

So Alex did the same.

Soon they were running through the town.

It was almost as if… “Are you running from me?!”

“I don’t need a delusional fanboy chasing me!”

Alex froze. He let Vash go - for now - and watched as his back grew smaller and smaller. He said aloud to himself “Delusional fanboy…?”

He smacked his face and grew new determination, deciding to pick up chase again. With that little reprieve of running, Vash was way ahead of him but two of Alex’s great skills were his speed and his durability.

So he kept running without issue.

He also knew exactly where Vash was running as Alex had just come from this direction and knew there was only one town this way.

While running and following took a lot of his concentration, it didn’t leave his brain completely empty. So while they ran he pondered on WHY they were running in the first place.

Delusional fanboy? Did his father really not see the resemblance? Was he just in denial? Ah. That must be it. Denial. Of course it would come as a shock. His mother told him as much. So a delusional fanboy, huh? He chuckled. That was a funny thought. Perhaps he was a fanboy - but he was far from delusional.

~!~

Vash couldn’t run anymore. He had to stop. Was that kid still following him? He couldn’t tell. He was too tired.

He placed his stuff down and sat down next to it right in the middle of nothing but sand. Vash had to think about this situation seriously. It’s true that years ago he shared a night with Meryl but the possibility of a kid coming out of that was very slim not to mention Vash even wondered if it was even possible at ALL. Rumors must be spreading. Maybe Meryl told Millie and Millie told the whole world? No. He would have heard of it before now if that was the case and besides that, he doubted either of the girls would do something like that.

Lucky guess from the kid? Yeah. That had to be it. Just a lucky guess. He looked over his shoulder as he heard footsteps and let out a defeated sigh as right behind him was the boy in question. He was bent over and breathing hard.

“I...finally… caught...up…”

Vash groaned and hung his head. “What do you want from me?” He stated simply. “Is this some sort of prank?”

The kid was silent for a few seconds but soon he was sitting down across from Vash, legs crossed, hands on his knees and leaning forward with a grin. “Nope~ I told you. I’m your son. I wouldn’t lie about something like this, trust me. Aunt Millie taught me better than that.”

Vash looked up at the boy and brought a hand to his head. “So you know Millie, too? What did you say your name was?”

The kid straightened up, still grinning, still with stars in his eyes. He brought a thumb to his chest and winked. “Alex Stryfe. Son of Meryl Stryfe and the Humanoid Typhoon, Vash the Stampede.”

“Stop saying that. It’s ridiculous.”

To that, Alex shrugged. “I didn’t expect you to run away from the truth, but mom did say you might have a hard time believing it. Though I was hoping you would recognize my blonde hair as only being able to come from you.”

“Don’t a lot of people have blonde hair?”

He shrugged again.

Vash looked up in thought and stared at the clouds above them. He still didn’t believe it but for some reason he felt there was no convincing this ‘Alex’ character. He thought of his possibilities. Keep running, maybe? Wait - 

Vash faced the kid once more. “What exactly do you want from me?”

“Just to travel with you, honestly. Make up for lost time. Oh! What if I took you to mom and she could prove it?! Yeah! That’s a great idea!” Alex jumped up in his excitement and, of course, his eyes were still shining with stars in them. Vash sighed. It seemed as though this kid had an unlimited source of energy. Still, he had to wonder if it actually would hurt anything to go along with him. Of course it could be a trap to turn him in.

Vash would need to sleep with one eye open tonight.

~!~

That night, after they made it to the next town and found a place to stay, Alex couldn’t bring himself to sleep. He paced around his room before finally settling down to write a letter to his mother.

‘Dear Mother and Aunt Millie. I finally found him! After two years, five months and seven days of searching I finally found Dad! You were right, though, he’s having a hard time believing me but we’re going to find our way home somehow and you can tell him yourself! It’ll be great when you two get reunited. Once Dad realizes I’m his son, we might all be able to travel the world together. Like how you used to go with him!’ Alex had to take a moment and let that thought settle in his mind. It was all too surreal to him. ‘Mom, what if we all get to save the world together?’ Again, he had to pause. That was a heavy thought. Was he wishing evil would hit the world just so that he could have a taste of the adventure his mom and dad experienced? ‘I know you can’t write back since we’re traveling all over and all but I wish I could know your honest reaction to this news. Guess we’ll have to wait for when I bring Dad back to you.”

Alex took the paper off the type-writer and stood up. His plan was to go straight to the post office to turn it in but that was stopped abruptly when, as he walked past his dad’s room, he heard a crash.

He stopped and felt his adrenaline pumping through his system. He grinned and slammed his dad’s door open, expecting to see a fight that his dad would solve peacefully but instead he found Vash on the floor, rubbing his head.

Vash turned to Alex and then smiled, though the smile seemed off somehow.

“Dad?”

The insincere smile dropped and was replaced with confusion and then slight annoyance. “Hey, are you still gonna call me that?”

Alex simply nodded. What was this? Did his dad move in his sleep? Rolling around and he fell? He sighed. That wasn’t near as cool as he was expecting. “Man, I was hoping there was a bounty hunter in here but I guess you just fell out of bed.”

Vash smiled that fake smile and crossed his legs as he faced the door. “Hey now, you WANT bounty hunters to show up?”

Alex nodded again. “Well, yeah, ‘cause I wanna see you in action.” Vash laughed and Alex huffed. He didn’t like being made fun of.

“How old are you again?”

“Twenty-two.”

When Vash raised an eyebrow as though not believing him, Alex REALLY felt annoyed. “Hey, I’m telling the truth! Sure, I might act a little childish from time to time but mom says that just shows how innocent I am and Zachary says innocence is a good thing!”

Vash looked as though he were about to question further, probably about who Zachary was, but instead he glanced away. “Being too innocent and naive can lead to people getting hurt, though.”

There was a moment of silence. Why was the silence awkward? His dad just gave him some real life fatherly advice. Wasn’t that something to be excited about? But he couldn’t feel excited. Instead the only thing he could feel was disappointment. He smacked his face. No! None of that! No disappointment allowed! You’ve met your father and he is exactly everything you expected and no matter what nothing can shatter that image!

He looked to Vash again and saw him just staring at him.

“What?” Alex asked, finally breaking the silence.

“Why did you hit yourself?”

“Ah - that?” He blushed. It was embarrassing to talk about. He didn’t mind doing it in front of other people, but talking about the why’s and how’s the habit came to be a thing was always cause for a red face. “It’s uh… It’s a habit. Something I do when my thoughts don’t go where I want them to so I can stop them and lead them down the right track.”

Vash smiled and then smacked his own face. Only, he clearly did it too hard as he had tears in his eyes from it. “Ow! That smarts!”

Alex started laughing. “Wow, did you really hurt yourself doing that? Don’t know your own strength or something?”

Vash grinned at him, red marks in the shape of hands on his face. “Yeah. I guess so.”

Alex smiled and again, they had a moment of silence, but this was one they shared. One that felt comfortable between the two. Eventually, it had to go away as Alex stretched. “Well, I gotta go get this letter sent to mom and Aunt Millie. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” Without waiting for an answer, he left his dad alone in the room. He was eccentric. Something Alex liked.

~!~

Once again, Vash laid in bed and stared at the ceiling. He sighed rather loudly. He needed to, after what just happened. The nightmares were still causing him problems. He still struggled with letting some things go, letting sleeping dogs lie, so to speak. The worst part of this particular experience, though, was falling out of the bed and getting caught by the boy who claimed to be his son.

He rolled on his side and instead of staring at the ceiling, decided to stare outside the window. Why didn’t he just close his eyes and try sleeping again? Cause he had a lot to contemplate. The only reason he fell asleep initially was because he was so exhausted from running from one town to the next. He groaned. That wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for the brat.

Yeah, he was definitely a brat. He was stubborn and naive. The stubbornness he could expect from most humans on this planet. The naivety? Not so much. Not at his age. Was he really twenty-two? He had plenty of time on this planet for his innocence to be shattered. Vash had seen all the hardships of the world. He knew all too well what happened out there to believe for a second that someone could be ‘naive and innocent’ at that age. It had to be an act.

There was no way it wasn’t an act.


End file.
